Demand for state aid explodes - with less money to go around

TALLAHASSEE -- Food-stamp distributions are at an all-time high. Medicaid costs are on the rise. The jobless are lining up for unemployment checks.

Though much of the gloom-and-doom budget talk in Tallahassee has focused on the state's dwindling revenues, there's another side to Florida's cash crisis: soaring costs as the desperate and down-on-their-luck turn to government for help.

"When times are tough, there are people without health insurance, without income to pay for their children's food," said Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. "Those are costs you can't ignore or neglect."

Demand for government assistance is mushrooming as Florida faces multibillion-dollar budget deficits stemming from a sharp decline in revenues, such as sales taxes and real-estate fee collections.

Nearly 100,000 people unexpectedly became eligible for Medicaid this year, hiking the sprawling program's yearly cost to $15.7 billion, a $300 million increase. Now, 2.3 million poor and disabled Floridians are eligible for last-resort, government-paid health care.

A record 1.7 million Floridians received food stamps in October. With a family of four getting $588 a month, the state distributed $189 million in federal food assistance in October, a 43 percent increase from a year ago.

And the number of families on a welfare program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families climbed, indicating families are struggling to pay for basic necessities such as rent and clothing.

'Limited number of dollars'

Rep. Dean Cannon of Winter Park, a ranking House Republican, said the thorny task awaiting legislators is to spread a "limited number of dollars across an unlimited number of worthy causes."

"You could never run out of people who need help," Cannon said.

Things are expected to get only worse, thanks to the housing crisis and a 7 percent unemployment rate, a 15-year high.

Through October, almost 1 million Floridians had applied for unemployment assistance, double the number seen in all of 2006. Florida has some of the nation's stingiest standards and payment levels for unemployment, with weekly checks capped at $275. Yet the costs are building: The state doled out $271.2 million in unemployment checks in October, a 123 percent increase from a year ago.

Mix of state, federal funds

Most health-care and social-welfare programs are paid through a mix of funds from the state and federal government, which supplies nearly a third of Florida's $66 billion budget.

The squeeze is felt across state government. As crime rises in a poor economy, the number of inmates in state prison facilities is projected to reach 100,000 for the first time later this year, at a per-prisoner cost of $53 a day. More people are applying to community colleges as an alternative to pricier four-year universities. Domestic violence and divorce are increasing, clogging an already underfunded court system.

"As the economy worsens, the need for the criminal-justice system unfortunately rises," said Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, a longtime police officer in Miami and Martin County. "Lots of people live on the very edges, the margins. They're prone to driving without a license because they've lost their insurance. As they lose their jobs, they become more easily enticed into criminal behavior."

Though Gov. Charlie Crist and Republican legislators so far are resisting revenue-boosters such as a higher cigarette tax, Democrats and advocacy groups are calling on state leaders to take dramatic steps to keep the government safety net from fraying. The federal government might toss the state a lifeline, a stimulus package that could include as much as $900 million to defray Medicaid costs, but whether that will happen is uncertain.

Must 'open our minds'

Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, put it bluntly: "We will simply not have the resources available to meet the need. It sounds dramatic and theatrical, but people will die, based on the budget cuts we'll make, if we do not open our minds to other sources of revenue."

Republicans say that's overblown, arguing they can cut government bureaucracy to pare costs. But they acknowledge there will be tough calls. "If we could have a magic source of revenue and the ability to cure any ill, we would do it," Cannon said.

Meanwhile, the ranks of the needy are growing.

"Sometimes it's people who are losing their jobs; sometimes all it takes to push you over the threshold is you got your hours cut," said Jennifer Lange , who administers the food-stamp and welfare programs for the Department of Children and Families. "It's very sad. There are so many people who are losing wages and having to turn to the government for help."